Self-study
Many mountain climbers regard climbing Mount Everest as the ultimate achievement. ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████
Summary
Mountain climbers should not try to climb Mount Everest. Why not? For one thing, there’s a very high risk of serious injury or death. For another, they’re unlikely to have a “spiritual experience”—past climbers say they only felt exhaustion and fear.
Notable Assumptions
The argument explains the risks and lack of benefits from climbing Everest, but then jumps to the conclusion that climbers should not attempt the climb. This indicates an assumption that climbers should not attempt a climb with such great risk and such little reward.
The principle we’re looking for will articulate this assumption, telling us that if a climb is very dangerous and does not yield a spiritual benefit, then climbers should not attempt that climb.
12.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████
a
Projects undertaken primarily ███ █████████ ███████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████
This rule doesn’t trigger, because the argument never tells us that the project of climbing Everest is undertaken primarily for spiritual reasons.
b
Dangerous activities that ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████
We know that climbing Everest is a dangerous activity which is unlikely to result in spiritual benefit, so according to this rule, people should avoid climbing Everest. That successfully bridges between the argument’s premises and conclusion!
c
Activities that are █████████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████████████
The argument never mentions legal prohibition, so this rule won’t correctly bridge the premise-conclusion gap.
d
Profound spiritual experiences ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████
This still doesn’t yield the conclusion that climbers should not attempt to climb Everest. The argument also just isn’t concerned with weighing different means to achieve spiritual experiences.
e
Mountain climbers and █████ ████████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ █████ ███████
This still doesn’t take us to the conclusion that climbers should not try to climb Everest—and that’s what the argument says, regardless of how well-examined the reasons.